STUDY ON WATER QUALITY AND BACTERIAL DIVERSITY IN KUANTAN ESTUARY, PAHANG

CHAPTER 1 1 .0 INTRODUCTION Microorganisms constitute a huge and almost unexplained reservoir of resources likely to provide innovative applications useful to human Microorganisms have been evolving for nearly 4 billion years and are capable of exploiting a vast range of energy sources and thriving in almost every habitat . Microorganisms , numerically and biochemically also dominate all inland water habitats . The term `microorganism ' encompasses an extensive and diverse assemblage of organisms , such as bacteria viruses , protozoa and fungi which exhibit widely different morphological , ecological and physiological characteristics

Bacterial diversity constitutes

the most extraordinary reservoir of life in the biosphere that people have only just begun to explore and understand . Diversity is composed of two elements , which are richness and evenness , so that the highest diversity occurs in communities with many different species present (richness ) in relatively equal abundance (evenness (Huston , 1994 . Thus , the study of bacterial diversity is important to solve new and emerging diseases problems and to advance biotechnology . Though the negative effects of bacteria such as disease are well known , their often subtle functions explain why their biodiversity positively affects humans

Bacteria represent the richest repertoire of molecular and chemical diversity in nature , as they comprise the most diverse forms of life . Some of these bacteria are key players in biogeochemical processes that are crucial processes for entire ecosystems . Distribution of bacteria depends on changes in water temperature , salinity and other physicochemical parameters (Alavandi , 1990 . Bacteria not only maintain the pristine nature of the environment , but also serve as...